BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer
MONMOUTH BEACH — The Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority (TRWRA) has shaved its budget for the new fiscal year.
The new budget, which took affect on Nov. 1, was adopted at the sewer authority’s October meeting. It anticipates spending of $13,090,747, down from the budget of $13,478,601 under which it operated in the last fiscal year than ended Oct. 31.
The decline is equal to a decrease of 2.8 percent.
Edward J. Griffin, financial manager for the authority, said the biggest savings was realized with a $226,000 reduction in the cost of health insurance for employees with a switch to the state health insurance plan.
The authority saved another $90,000 by refinancing approximately $11 million in bonds from a 1993 issue. The refinancing will result in a savings of $60,000 in debt service in each succeeding year until 2016.
Griffin said the remaining $56,000 in savings was from a lot of little things.
Expenditures in the new budget are $6,667,186 for operations, $5,843,561 for debt service and $580,000.
Revenues to cover them include $6,798,967 from service agreements, $5,814,435.60 from user charges and fees, $103,000 from interest on investments, $112,000 from connection charges, $56,750 from miscellaneous sources and $205,594.45 from the reserve for rate stabilization.
Griffin urged TRWRA customers from member towns to use an automatic bill payment service that the authority implemented earlier this year. He explained that with the service on the date shown on the customer’s bill, their bank will automatically pay that amount from their account. He said there is no charge for direct payments. If someone elects to stop the payment plan, he added, they simply notify the authority.
Griffin said only 157 customers had signed up for the debit payment service. He said that is a little over 1 percent of the 15,000 units on line.
The member towns are Monmouth Beach, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Shrewsbury, Oceanport and West Long Branch.
The authority also has six customer towns — Eatontown, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright, Shrewsbury Township and Tinton Falls — plus Fort Monmouth.